Middle East Inside Line: Israel Shifts on Settlements; Egypt & Hamas Ally on "Normalisation"

Israel Manoeuvres on Settlements Issue: Just one day after the approval of new 455 housing units in the West Bank, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak (pictured) tacked back diplomatically and said that "freezing [settlement] construction is a correct national priority". He added, "Regarding the settlements, we need to act wisely and responsibly, not with harsh words and violence."

Barak's maneuver, coming just before US envoy George Mitchell's visit to Israel, both sends a signal to Washington and prepares the Israeli public for a policy shift.

Whether or not the US knew about Israel's construction of an additional 455 housing units, making Washington's protests in the last week posture rather than substance, it is now necessary for the Netanyahu Government to consider an alignment with the the US. And that in turns means convincing the public, and especially the core membership of the Likud Party,  that Israel needs to show "genorosity" on the settlements in return for Arab pledges to normalise relations.

Egypt and Hamas Ally to Slow "Normalisation" with Israel: Despite Saudi Arabia's explicit rejection of the normalization of ties with Israel, the Arab League's dismissal, and Israel's latest hesitations, Washington gave the good news: "Some Arab countries had agreed in normalizing their relations with Israel in exchange of the latter's temporary freeze in its settlements."

However, right after the US message, both Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and Cairo sent contradictory signals. On Sunday, Meshaal warned Arabs not to accept a temporary freeze in exchange for the normalization of relations with Israel. Then on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said: "A settlement freeze in the West Bank is not of equal value to normalization, and will not bring this about alone."

Why this alliance of views, given recent hostility between Egypt and Hamas? Sources close to Hamas in the Gaza Strip stated that Meshaal's recent visit to Cairo "brought the Islamist movement and Fatah closer to ending their differences." The same sources added that Hamas agreed to sign a "reconciliation accord" with Fatah after the Egyptians promised to reopen the Rafah border crossing permanently .

In Cairo, both sides might have negotiated to slow the "normalization process between some Arab countries and Israel", or at least, on breaking up the "positive" atmosphere portrayed by Washington. This would not be a burden for Egypt both since the scope of these "normalization steps" is expected to be limited, and since Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan had already rejected taking a step towards Israel unless it halted settlement constructions completely and permanently.

Middle East Inside Line: Stalemate over Lebanon's Government; Israel's Settlements as "Human Rights"

Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis

Stalemate over Lebanon Government: Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri (pictured) submitted the list for a new national unity government to Lebanese president Michel Suleiman on Monday. Hariri's "March 14" alliance gets 15 of 30 seats in the new cabinet and the opposition "March 8" alliance 10 seats. The other five seats will be chosen by the president.

Hezbollah and its allies refused to support the  list since several ministries and appointees that it demanded had been rejected by Hariri. Haaretz quotes one senior Hezbollah official: "We will not deal with this proposal because we know nothing about it. As far as we are concerned, it does not exist and we will have nothing to do with it."

President Suleiman is not expected to approve any Cabinet proposal that does not have opposition support.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Government has decided to intervene. An Israeli official said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the issue in the past, and that his position then still stands: "If Hezbollah joins the Lebanese government, then the Lebanese government is accepting responsibility for Hezbollah's actions, including its actions against Israel."

Israel's Settlements Expand for Sake of "Human Rights": On Monday, right-wing lawmakers, including Supreme Court Judge Eliyakim Rubinstein, celebrated the establishment of a new neighborhood in the E-1 corridor connecting Jerusalem to settlement suburbs in the West Bank. National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau and Information Minister Yuli Edelstein were also present.

Following Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak's decision to approve construction of 455 new homes, this was a "victory" demonstration for some Likud Party members. Landau told the crowd:

This land is ours and ours alone... It is the Arabs who are occupiers... A settlement freeze is a violation of human rights. What can we tell the families? Don't have any more kids, don't build another house, you can't have a playground here. This construction must not stop under any circumstances.

Middle East Inside Line: Israel and Hamas Manoeuvre on Settlements Policy

Israel Government Moves for Common Line on Settlements: On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would likely reach a final plan with George Mitchell during the American envoy's visit to Israel this week.

Dealing with increasing criticisms from his Likud Party, the Prime Minister held meetings with some Likud cabinet ministers and members of Parliament to get their support for a freeze on construction in the West Bank settlements. Netanyahu's meetings came as Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave partial approval for 500 new housing units to be constructed in the West Bank, with 2000 more to be approved on Monday morning. A source in the Prime Minister's office said Netanyahu did not use the word "moratorium" or "freeze" but described the proposed measure as "reducing the scale of construction".

While the European Union reiterated its call for a "total settlement freeze," Washington sharpened its tone:

Continued settlement activity is inconsistent with Israel's commitment under the road map.... The administration of President Barack Obama does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and we urge that it stop. We are working to create a climate in which negotiations can take place, and such actions make it harder to create such a climate.

Meanwhile, Israel and Hamas Stand Tough: On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai told Likud Party members:

The postponement in construction is a strategic delay... We won't give up on building in Jerusalem and will still build hundreds of construction units. We are looking ahead, here.

On the other side, Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal warned Arab states:

There is an Israeli effort to avoid the American demands... We warn against any Arab rush toward normalization.

Middle East Inside Line: Israel Ground War with Lebanon?

Is Israel Backing Away from Shalit Release?
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had two significant messages for high school students on Tuesday. First, as German mediators await a Hamas response over the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, Barak said Israel "would do every way to secure Shalit's release but not at any cost....The time has come to say bluntly: combat troops and soldiers arrive with the knowledge that the task of fulfilling their missions entails a willingness to risk their lives and that the fighters have that willingness to undertake the mission."

Barak's second message was just as tough:

We cannot blur the basic truth... We are a generation of fighters and in the Middle East, there is no mercy for the weak and there will not be a second opportunity for those who do not know how to defend themselves.

Israeli Military on Ground War with Lebanon: The commander of Israeli ground forces (and soon the head of the Israel Defense Forces' Central Comman) Major-General Avi Mizrachi,  OC Ground Forces Command Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrachi,  has told a conference of more than 100 military officers from almost 30 countries that "the future battlefield the IDF will face will be more difficult, lethal and uncertain":

A war cannot be won without moving forces on the ground....Even today there are people who believe that it is sufficient to threaten to use the forces but in the Middle East this is not enough. Only a ground maneuver will end the conflict and win the war.

OK, but where will be that "future battlefield" be?

The head of the Israeli Armored Corps Brigadier-General Agay Yehezkeli said that, in case of a war between Lebanon and Israel, the IDF would need to launch a quick ground operation, heavily dependent on tanks, deep into Lebanese territory to curb rocket attacks. Chief Infantry Officer Brigadier General Yossi Bahar disagreed: several brigades would be capable of conquering southern Lebanon and taking control of the 165 villages south of the Litani River.

Conflict between Israel and European Media Widens: The controversy over a Swedish newspaper's coverage of the allegation that Israeli troops harvested the organs of dead Palestinians has been joined by a second furour. The Spanish daily El Mundo is interviewing historians to mark 70 years since the start of World War II; one of them is David Irving, who served time in an Austrian prison for his denial of the Holocaust..

Israeli diplomatic circles and media are furious over Irving, whose interview appears on Saturday, being considered as an expert. The Israeli Ambassador to Spain, Raphael Schutz, argued that the publication would give credibility to Irving and his ideas. El Mundo responded that the interview was part of freedom of the press.

Meanwhile, the Swedish-Israeli dispute has another participant. Syrian President Bashir al-Assad's spokeswoman Bouthaina Shaaban praised the article in the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday, saying that "Israel should be put on trial" and giving a lengthy explanation of "Soprano-like networks", run by US rabbis, "to sell the kidneys of Palestinian martyrs in the US black market".

Yossi Levy, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman for the Israeli press, responded, "It is not surprising that Damascus smelled the anti-Semitism emanating from the article, and quickly embraced it for its propaganda purposes....Poisonous anti-Semitism was no stranger to Syria's political philosophy."